Puerto Rico population to drop 14% after hurricane

Puerto Rico’s population is set to decrease by 14 percent to 2.9 million inhabitants by 2019 due to an exodus of residents fleeing the devastation caused by Hurricane Maria in September, a study has found. “In the decade prior to Hurricane Maria, net migration from Puerto Rico to the United States amounted to approximately half a million, which represented a loss of ten percent of the island’s population,” said report authors Edwin Melendez and Jennifer Hinojosa.